Nederland residents anxious, angry over backpack bomb at police station

FBI: Bomb was active but failed to detonate

By John Bear

Staff Writer

Posted:
10/12/2016 10:18:53 AM MDT

Updated:
10/13/2016 10:13:24 AM MDT

Tyler Michi, of Rollinsville, puts his clean laundry in his car after doing it at a laundromat near the Nederland Police Station on Wednesday. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at Nederland's Caribou Ridge Shopping Center on Wednesday afternoon — at least on the surface — but residents remained on edge after someone left a homemade bomb outside of the police department the day before.

"I don't think anyone is going to take a breath until someone is in custody," said Jeffrey Green, owner of the Very Nice Brewing Company.

Green was tending bar on Wednesday afternoon, about 13 hours after the Boulder County Bomb Squad detonated the bomb about 100 feet away from his front door after using two robots to examine it for more than 12 hours.

Bomb-squad robots are seen in the parking lot outside the Nederland Police Department on Tuesday after a backpack was discovered with a suspicious device that later was detonated. (Courtesy 7News Denver)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation — which is leading the investigation — has determined that the bomb, which was found inside a backpack, was active but failed to detonate.

Rumors had circulated the day before that there was not a bomb, with some people hearing a cake had been dropped off for the police or a transient had left behind a bag of marijuana and a pipe. By Wednesday afternoon, it had sunk in that the truth was far worse.

"I think people are scared," Green said. "At first people thought it was just a goofy Nederland thing. It really shocked them that it turned out to be an explosive device."

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The bomb prompted the evacuation of the shopping center all day on Tuesday, and shop owners were busy catching up on Wednesday — among them, Dam Liquor Store operating manager and co-owner Scott Havnes.

"Tuesday was my order day, so I missed all my orders," Havnes said. "Now I'm trying to recover and get everything back to normal. We lost about $4,000 in sales yesterday."

Police decided it was not safe to move the bomb and detonated it at about 1:45 a.m. in the parking lot of the shopping center. Town Administrator Alisha Reis said officials grappled with whether to issue reverse 911 calls to residents, but she was glad they did after hearing it go off from her home.

"Having heard it, there was no way we couldn't have called people," she said. "It would have scared the heck out of people."

While residents are angered that someone would leave a bomb in front of a police station, much of their ire also focused on the fact that the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center — a nature center that is frequented by children — is housed next door to the police department.

"The kid thing really hits you," Green said. "The kid thing is what is sticking with me."

Jill Dreves, executive director of Wild Bear, said that she briefly considered not holding programs on Wednesday — partially because they didn't know if the evacuation would be lifted — but they decided to open for business.

"We are happy people came out, in spite of the fear," she said. "It's not cool to think about what could have happened. We thought about canceling but we thought, 'No, this is what people should be doing.'"

In spite of being unnerved, residents on Wednesday appeared to be banding together to support one another. Green was offering a free beer to first responders, and the Carousel of Happiness held a "mental health day," offering free merry-go-round rides to anyone interested.

Reis said residents have taken the incident personally, because the police officers who watch over the town are their friends, neighbors and relatives.

"This seems to folks like they are not only targeting the police but everyone here," Reis said. "People are bewildered that something like this could happen in a small town."

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